Respose #5: Educational Structure: in Crisis and Near Collapse

Philip Sharkey

Eng102 – Benton

Educational Structure: in Crisis and Near Collapse

            The main argument proposed in John Bellamy Foster’s “Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital,” is that the privatization of the American Public School System and the Capitalist structure of American primary and secondary education has led to its current failing condition.  I have held a similar view for much of my life and it will be my intention in writing this response to expand on this focus, using personal experience and more traditional sources. 

            Growing up in the United States, I have had the privilege of experiencing several educational orders.  I have enjoyed the freedom of Montessori Schools, the repressive nature of the Catholic School System, the over-standardization of Public Schools, and I have been cultivated into a product by magnet programs. While the paradigm of the Public School System in America is universal, private institutions do not always follow the same strict format. Take Montessori schools for example, while they do have some of the same foundations as public schools they also encourage students to supplement their education with independent learning and thinking; as their mission statement clearly states, “Aiming to develop independent and self-thinking individuals who help create a better world for themselves and others.” (http://www.international-montessori.org)

            Although my time in the Montessori School System was probably the most profoundly influencing over course of my education, the most notorious public program I was involved with was The Academy at Henry Clay High School.  At a mere glance magnet programs like The Academy; seem to be advantageous to outsiders. Sure the students within such programs are more likely to succeed, they get better scores in class, standardized tests and college entry exams like the SAT; but what people fail to account for is the reason these programs exist in the first place.

            The main priority of such programs is not to provide the best education for their students, but to off balance the poor testing results of the rest of the school.  As I was constantly reminded during my time in The Academy, it was the duty of myself and my classmates to do exceptionally well on the nationally issued standardized tests.  It was the funding the school acquired through our scores that paid for new sporting equipment, books and other school property.  We were pushed through the program on the grounds that we were the most capable of academic achievement.  Sure they would help us apply to schools when the time came, but we were really a product; something to be developed so that when we were used or ‘sold’ every spring, we could create the most profit or the highest scores possible.

            Montessori Schools taught me how to be a contributing member of society in extreme juxtaposition to magnet programs within the Public School system, which only fed a more primal competitive nature.  What I found to be the most troubling and socially destructive flaw within Magnet Programs, is the disproportionately high level of attention school teachers focus on their students.  It seems to me that this behavior, in many ways, led to a belief held by many students in such programs that they were somehow better than the rest of society.  We are the students that are supposed to make the most money, hold the most power and influence. “The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system stems from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for a future career....  A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.” (A quote from Albert Einstein found in http://monthlyreview.org)

            It is time that we separate ourselves from these ridiculous notions that any man, no matter how great, is better than another.  We live in a society that values equality and so we should try to make a more equal society, starting with education.  We should not be separated from the time we are eleven or twelve into tiny factions that are designed to stimulate educational growth among the most elite.  Most people have the same level of ability at such a young age and we should be trying to help each individual student, not just those that show the most ‘promise’ for success. In conclusion the capitalist structure of Public Education is leading to its demise, although it is not too late to fix it.

Works Cited

Foster, John Bellamy. "Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital :: Monthly Review." Monthly Review, An Independent Socialist Magazine. Monthly Review, 1 July 2011. Web. Sept. 2011. <http://monthlyreview.org/2011/07/01/education-and-the-structural-crisis-of-capital>.

"International Montessori Schools & Child Development Centres | Mission Statement." International Montessori Schools & Child Development Centres | Home. International Montessori Schools and Child Development Centres. Web. 19 Sept. 2011. <http://www.international-montessori.org/mission-statement.htm>.